Tight Corks

[Waldo]

I'll get a picture later but my cork humidor is simply a 2 gallon plastic container with a smaller plastic container with holes punched in the lid and filled with kmeta sitting in it with the corks poured in on top of that. Pretty simple but very effective.

 

[sangwitch]

So Waldo... it's just the fumes of the K-meta sanitizing the corks huh? That's a good idea.

 

[Wade E]

As of right now I have not had any problems with corks but then again I
do not use the cheaper corks or the really expensive ones for that
matter. I do use corks with the (Grape Cluster ) on them that I
purchase from a local store in Waterbury, Ct. She has two kinds of
these Grape cluster corks and also different sizes in these also. The
ones I use are $.10 more than the cheaper ones a pce. which in total
are $.35 a pce. and I do soak them in k-meta and warm water for about 5
minutes and then insert them with my cheap double lever corker. There
are at least two different kinds of these double lever corkers that I
know of becuse my friend who got me interested in making wine had told
me that corking was very hard to do by yourself. When I did it for the
first time it was so easy I had to ask him what his problem was. I used
the #9 1.75 and he was using the # 8 1.75 and he asked how I got
the bigger corks in. He had a batch that was ready to bottle so I lent
him my corker and he couldnt believe how easy it was. He immediately
went out and bought this corker and the #9 corks and neither of us have
had a problem. N ext time I go there I'll ask what brand of corks they
are which will be soon as I only have about 7 corks left

 

[earl]

Great Post George.


The only problem I have with my corks is where to put them all.


earl

 

[Wade E]

The onlt problem I have with corks is restraining from pulling them out of the bottle and drinking the wine before its time!

 

[lednugenna]

So, the question is ,which corker ARE you using? I would love to know so I can enjoy bottling my wine in th near future.
Anne</font>
</font>

 

[smurfe]

I occasionally have a tough one to get out but nothing really out of the ordinary. The perfect agglomerate corks are the only ones I have ever had a problem with though. I have been trying numerous different styles of corks to see which I prefer. I prefer the agglomerate corks for cost reasonsbut I am concerned about their half life. Can the home wine maker even get 100% real corks? I never see a vendor selling them. I see the tapered ones George sells and notice many sell the same but they appear to be used for carboys and jugs from seeing the sizes available.


I have used synthetics but have never experienced a problem removing them. I have not used Nomacorc as it seems most vendors only sell the 1.5" corks and I want 1.75" I have tried the Altec corks which are semi-synthetic with no issues thus far and am going to try a full synthetic on my next batch bottled but it is not the Nomacorc brand. I believe they are called Neocorc and are the brand a lot of wineries use. I had a sample bag of 100 given to me so we will see how they work.


In regards to the question I have to agree that soaking is what makes the agglomerate corks stick. I used to use a large plastic bowl I would place sanitizer in (S-Meta) and dump my corks in. I would do this right when I would start bottling and I would just leave them in the solution as I used them. I noticed it was tougher to uncork these bottled batches as those that I merely rinsed and sat on a paper towel or dumped in an empty bowl. I will say none so far have been "that" tough. But a few have been stubborn. I normally use one of those double handle cork screws but use the waiters type quite a bit as well. No real issue.


Smurfe

 

[smurfe]

So, the question is ,which corker ARE you using? I would love to know so I can enjoy bottling my wine in th near future.
Anne

You can't really go wrong with either the Portuguese or the Italian floor corker. They both work very good from what everyone says. I have the Italian corker and love it, but I am sure if I had the Portuguese I would love it as well. But since I am married to an Italian, particularly a Sicilian, I better stick with the Italian

Smurfe

 

[stormbringer]

I agree with smurfe that the Italian floor corker is the way to go. It can be quickly taken apart and stored in the original shipping contaner under a bed (etc.) until needed. You may want to ensure that the legs have a suitable soft-plastic type cap installed to prevent scratching your floor. My corker did not arrive with the caps. They are easily bought at just about any local hardware store and are inexpensive.Be sure to clean the iris area of this capperbefore storage. I read in the forums that -- due to the design -- K-meta can accumulate in this area during use and may cause some sort of corrosionover a period of time.Better safe than sorry.

 

[Coaster]

I broke a bottle the other nite pulling a cork from my Piesporter using a waiter type corkscrew =/ New blue 750ml Hock style bottle. #9 FineVineWine cork. I had soaked these corks a few mins in the vinator solution while I corked the whole batch. Next time I'll spray and let them rest on foil.Edited by: Coaster

 

[NorthernWinos]

We use a cheap-o Gilda corker...we use #8 X 1.75 corks....we never let our wine stay in the bottles too long, 1 1/2+ years is the maximum ..so far.

We had used #9 X 1.75 and had a bit of a problem on some bigger topped bottles.

With the Gilda you can not use the flange top bottles...and might have a problem with some of the bigger tops.

We do the bottling together....I fill with a cheap-o gravity filler, my honey runs the Gilda, I center the Gilda on the top of the bottle and he drives the cork in....by then the next bottle is full and we repeat....


We can do a 5 and 6 gallon batch in no time...I have everything laid out ready to go....

He does do something with vegetable oil on the iris...that's his department, so am not sure why he does that.

We have no complaints on the Gilda, but like I said we do it together...think it works better with two people running that one.

We have very limited space here, so storing a floor corker and bottle drying tree, as well as other much needed equipment is not in our cards...Wish we'd have been making wine when we built this house....things would have been a bit different.

 

[geocorn]

I have talked with the manufacturer and we are going to increase the coating, slightly. I don't want to overdue it as the corks might not want to stay in the bottle. We are almost out of corks, so I have 35,000 on order with the additional coating. They should be in next week.

 

[OldWino1]

This is a link to a kit vendors site just more information


http://www.rjspagnols.com/resource_view.asp?HandoutID=14

 

[Waldo]

We use a cheap-o Gilda corker...we use #8 X 1.75 corks....we never let our wine stay in the bottles too long, 1 1/2+ years is the maximum ..so far.

We had used #9 X 1.75 and had a bit of a problem on some bigger topped bottles.

With the Gilda you can not use the flange top bottles...and might have a problem with some of the bigger tops.

We do the bottling together....I fill with a cheap-o gravity filler, my honey runs the Gilda, I center the Gilda on the top of the bottle and he drives the cork in....by then the next bottle is full and we repeat....


We can do a 5 and 6 gallon batch in no time...I have everything laid out ready to go....

He does do something with vegetable oil on the iris...that's his department, so am not sure why he does that.

We have no complaints on the Gilda, but like I said we do it together...think it works better with two people running that one.

We have very limited space here, so storing a floor corker and bottle drying tree, as well as other much needed equipment is not in our cards...Wish we'd have been making wine when we built this
house....things would have been a bit different.

NW, I would like to find out what Bert is doing with the vegetable oil on the iris. I would be concerned that this might get transferred to the wine when the cork is inserted on my floor corker but I am not familiar with the corker you are using.

 

[PolishWineP]

Waldo said: "NW, I would like to find out what Bert is doing with the vegetable oil ..."
I too would like to know what Bert is doing over there with the vegetable oil. No wonder he's always too tired to bottle here.

He's bottling at your place!

 

[NorthernWinos]

Bert hasn't been here yet....we've been meeting at the fork in the river...
Somewhere on the instructions it said to oil part of the apparatus...?

 

[sangwitch]

I scored my floor corker from a friend so it didn't come with any documentation. I can feel an oily substance on the iris so I'm also curious about the oil. I guess I can ask Bert when he comes over to help me bottle.


anyone have maintenance info on the corkers?

 

[runningqrtr]

I am new to wine making and even newer to the forum, but I have found something that helps me with "tight"corks. Most of the timeI use a waiter style cork screw. I have found that if I insert the cork screw right at the edge of the cork so the screw penetrates the side of the cork the cork comes right out. I hope this helps.

 

[Dean]

It is good to oil/grease the iris on your corkers. You can get a food grade grease that is meant for them to keep the in tip top shape. I light application when the iris is fully uncompressed is all that is needed after every corking run.

 

[stormbringer]

I took the advise from the link posted by OldWino, and the cork humidor suggested by Waldo. Bottled 30 with#9 x 1.75 agglomerated corksthis afternoonusing the "dry cork" method. Seems to be a good plan.Will find out in 4 weeks if this solves the "tight cork" issue.


In a previous post it was mentioned a coating on thecorks that will repel/bead liquid.I've never noticed it but it's definitely there. It may be a moot point but I'm wondering if maybe some of us are causing our own tight cork dilemmas due to improper handling of the corks during the corking procedure?